Kitna has lots to prove in final games

AP PhotoThe job is Jon Kitna's to lose, but the coaching staff should closely evaluate his play over the next five games, according to Tom Kowalski.

ALLEN PARK -- Even though the Detroit Lions may already have blown their best shot at making the playoffs, they are still in the thick of things and this is no time to start looking at next year.

Then again, maybe it is.

It was unthinkable a month ago, but the Lions have to take a hard look at their quarterback position and make sure that Jon Kitna is the guy for next season.

This is not to suggest that Kitna is the main reason the Lions are suddenly reeling with a three-game losing streak.

However, not being the reason for losing isn't the same thing as winning.

This is a position that must be judged on production, not just numbers but playmaking ability on third down and in the fourth quarter. Coach Rod Marinelli can't be blinded by the fact that Kitna has all the other intangibles he likes -- toughness, leadership and, most importantly, full belief in Marinelli's message.

Those things are all admirable and were good reasons why Marinelli didn't bench Kitna last season. But as the Lions try to take that next step, they need that quarterback position to ignite the offense, make things happen and not put the defense in bad positions.

In the NFC, the only quarterback who has a worse passer efficiency rating than Kitna on third down is Alex Smith of the San Francisco 49ers.

Again, Kitna can't do it himself and he has some cards stacked against him -- the situation at right tackle has become a joke. Still, Kitna has to be the one Lions player who comes closest to playing mistake-free football. When Roy Williams runs the wrong route with the game on the line and Kitna misses him, that's one thing. When Williams is wide open and Kitna misses him, that's another.

Kitna's going to have to help get this Detroit team resurrected in a hurry and it is not going to be easy. The Lions must face a tough defense on the road against the resurgent Minnesota Vikings and then host the red-hot Dallas Cowboys. To make matters worse, Kitna is banged up and starting to show the affects of getting splattered 10 times a game.

There's a fine line here because Kitna has to get the most out of his ability without pressing and trying to do too much. When he got here, the knock on Kitna was that he wasn't going to re-invent himself at this stage of his career, that he was going to be the guy who would show flashes of brilliance but not make enough plays to win in the final quarter.

Well, Kitna has to re-invent himself and prove that he can be a difference-maker at the most important time of the year. That's why these last five games are huge, not just for this season, but for the Lions management as they plot their future course.

If Kitna plays at a high level in these final five games, then he goes into next year as the undisputed starter. However, if he is still inconsistent with his accuracy and not taking care of the ball, then Marinelli has to open the job up and Drew Stanton enters the picture.

The problem, of course, is that there's little chance Stanton will be "better" than Kitna at the end of training camp. What the Lions would then have to decide is whether Stanton showed rapid improvement and had enough potential and "upside" that the team would be better off in the long run by going with Stanton. That's a very tough call and making the wrong decision can once again delay the team's success moving forward.

What Marinelli really wants is to put off a decision on Stanton for another year. Not only because it would mean the Lions would have a better chance of success at the end of this year -- and Stanton might not be ready -- but because Marinelli has enough issues to deal with in the offseason.

Kitna has always wanted to be in this situation -- leading a team into a heated playoff chase in December -- and now it's up to him to overcome the obstacles facing this offense. This is Kitna's team and how long it stays that way is entirely up to him.